An Unlikely Alliance (standard:science fiction, 2454 words)
Author: Virtual Adept	Added: Oct 13 2000	Views/Reads: 4171/2482	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
First part to a Mage: The Ascension/Werewolf: The Apocalypse crossover story about a young Virtual Adept Mage teaming up with a Garou warrior in an attempt to thwart the Technocracy.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

holographic projector read the code, by the use of a little vulgar 
Magick, Max shifted forms from his usual self, into the security 
cleared individual. 

The man he had become was a short, middle-aged man who must’ve had more
than a few beers in his lifetime. Max was unaccustomed to weighing 275 
pounds, but it was better than getting cleaved in half by burning 
security lasers. Max strode forth with all confidence in the world, as 
the electric eye above the entrance scrutinized his every cell. A sly 
sounding computerized female voice sounded over the area. 

“SUBJECT... ANDERSON, DAVID... LEVEL 10 SECURITY... ACCESS GRANTED, GOOD
DAY MR. ANDERSON. WOULD YOU LIKE SOME COFFEE?” 

If the computer was offering him coffee, Max thought, it must have been
pleased with his clever guise. 

“No, thank you.”  Max shook his head and laughed a little. The lasers
vanished, and soft classical music wafted from surrounding sound 
systems. A pressurized vault door clanked and creaked as it swung away 
from the wall. Max stepped through the door, and almost instantly, it 
slammed shut. The room ahead of him was like walking toward the white 
light. The whole room was empty, save for several laser projectors and 
a pedestal in the center of the room. The pedestal looked like 
something that the hope diamond would be kept in, except the treasure 
was much more valuable. 

In the pedestal, was a microchip resting on a cloth pillow. The most
advanced Artificial Intelligence ever created. CyberX’s gem. IterationX 
couldn’t compare to this intelligence.  This thing was more intelligent 
than the most genius human, capable of 1000 times more operations and 
functions than the human brain.  Max stepped forward to get a closer 
look. The chip was large, and had some unusual features. The whole chip 
was made of some odd metal, probably manufactured by the Technocracy. 
It seemed to shift color as it was viewed at different angles. In the 
center of the chip was a small, glass dome with a glowing mass of 
wires. Max almost let the drool fall out onto the floor. He pressed his 
hand against the handprint panel, and the pedestal sunk into the floor, 
leaving the chip wide open for Max to snatch up. He gingerly lifted the 
chip up off the pillow, and slipped it into an eyeglass case in his 
coat pocket. Removing a decoy from his pocket, he placed it onto the 
pillow before he activated the pedestal. If one of these Technocratic 
bastards activated this chip, it would project an image of Max’s naked 
ass over every monitor in the building. He walked casually out the 
door, and back down the security tunnel, watching it seal up behind 
him. Making sure he was out of range of the cameras, he sloughed off 
his faux guise, and took on the 3d wire frame once again. 

Moving with blinding speed, he zipped along the corridors, and out into
the front lobby in a matter of seconds. He passed through the front 
doors, and out onto the streets. He took on his normal form. The moon 
hung ominously overhead, casting it’s ghostly light over everything for 
as far as Max could see. He hurried down the street, and down a dark 
alley to his car. The moonlight hit the black paint of the Mitsubishi 
3000 GT, giving it ghostly appearance. He admired the trimmings he had 
given his car, several of which were most amusing. If one lived in a 
big city, one knew of the perils of cleaning bird crud from the 
windshield. Max had an amusing solution to this problem. If a bird 
landed on, or flew less than 3 feet over the car, a small laser would 
rise from the hood, and blast the unfortunate avian out of the air. The 
interior was much more impressive. The windshield was covered in a thin 
layer of a special plastic, which acted like a monitor. The car was 
equipped with many different computer parts and features, which were on 
the brink of being Vulgar. The car possessed a near artificial 
intelligence as well, but was just really well programmed. He opened 
the car door, and the car whirred to life. “Good day Max.  What music 
would you like?” Max climbed into the drivers seat and shut the door. 

“None tonight thanks.” He removed his heavy headset, and set it down on
the passenger seat. He ran a hand through his hair, and fumbled for his 
keys. He had to get as far from here as possible, or at least to his 
apartment. He found the car, and jammed the key into the ignition, 
bringing the car to life. The windshield turned black and displayed the 
car’s diagnostic. Max quickly canceled the setting, and stepped on the 
gas. The tires screeched against the pavement, sending the smell of 
heated rubber wafting through the vents. With a jackrabbit start, Max 
hurtled from his hiding place, and accelerated down the street past the 
building. He pressed a few buttons on the dashboard, and a tiny 
television rose from the surface. The television crackled to life, and 
an anchorwoman appeared on the screen, reporting some senseless crime. 
Max ignored the screen for the time being, and he kept driving. It had 
started to rain since he had left, and visibility was deteriorating. 
The wipers solved that tiny problem, as he switched them on. He reached 
over with one hand, and picked his headset up. Placing it on his head, 
he adjusted the lenses to penetrate the rain. The headset was a bit 
heavy, but it was a price worth paying for. Suddenly, the heads up 
display flashed, and a portion of the windshield turned blue. 

It had sensed a humanoid figure, an IterationX cyborg. Max stepped on
the accelerator, and the cyborg looked up. Max pressed the auto pilot 
button, and rolled the window down. He yanked his plasma pistol from 
the holster on his belt, and began firing. The cyborg looked up, as a 
bolt of plasma whizzed by its ear, and melted off the latex ear applied 
to the side of its head. As the car neared the robot, it reached out 
and clothes lined Max, which sent him tumbling from his perch. The car 
took off, and spun around to face the two. Max mentally instructed it 
to enter it’s protective mode, and he stood up. The cyborg had 
vanished. Max looked around and saw nothing, no trace of the bot or 
anything else. He walked a little ways down the sidewalk, keeping 
alert. A faint humming arose, and the air rippled about a hundred yards 
down the street from him. 

“A reality ripple?” Max asked himself. The cyborg had gone vulgar. A
strange tension filled the area, and a huge bolt of purple energy burst 
from the air, missing Max as he leaped from his position. He landed in 
a pile of garbage in the alley next to him, covering himself in reeking 
filth. He spit some unknown sludge from his mouth, and looked around. 
His scanners revealed nothing. Max began to get up, when something 
grabbed him. Without looking back, he pulled on his arm, trying to 
wrench it free. He turned his head, and to his horror the garbage had 
covered his arm, and was pulling on it. The cyborg was still here, Max 
thought as he removed his arm from the refuse with a sickening slurping 
noise. He stood up, and held his plasma pistol parallel to his head, 
his finger firmly on the trigger. The scanners still revealed nothing, 
and Max was getting worried. He couldn’t kill something he couldn’t 
find. Suddenly, a sound like a splash of water echoed in his ears, as 
the cyborg burst from the fabric of reality. Max was caught off guard, 
and he fell backward. 

Neither the IterationX’er nor Max saw what was coming next. The
screeching war cry couldn’t have come from the throat of a human, and 
it didn’t. A silhouette of a large muscled figure made its appearance 
on the top of a nearby building. The cyborg turned from Max, and fired 
a shot at the figure. The figure leaped from its perch, and in the 
light could be seen. A werewolf in Crinos form plunged downward toward 
the cyborg, pinning it to the ground. Max had never had contact with a 
werewolf before, but he liked what he had seen so far. The werewolf 
brought a great clawed arm down on the head of the cyborg, crushing it 
beneath its raw strength. 

The cyborg’s body convulsed, and then was still as a bloody nanomachine
mixture leaked from it’s crushed skull, something the nanomachines 
couldn’t fix. Max stood up, and turned to meet the werewolf. He 
outstretched his hand, when the arm of the cyborg reached up. Max 
impulsively aimed at the arm, and shot wildly, reducing it to a 
bubbling pool of metal. 

The great beast closed his eyes, and began shifting into his homid form.
Max stepped back, uneasy at this interesting physical feat. The middle 
aged man, clothed in a black trench coat, looked at Max from behind 
mirrored shades. 

“Thank you. The machine-man killed one of our fellow wolves, and I had
the need to dispatch of him. Allow me to introduce myself. Lord 
Cometus, Glass Walker Scion.” Max knew little of werewolves, save for 
they had complicated names. 

Max extended his hand, and said, “Uhh, Max. Mage of the Virtual Adept
Tradition.” The werewolf grabbed Max’s hand, and gave it a hearty 
shake, which Max thought would rip his arm from the socket. 

The werewolf eyed him a little, but being a glasswalker, he was used to
mages. “Well Max, I would get on home, the Vampires are going to be out 
in a few hours, and they aren’t any better than the walking PC I just 
killed here.” And with that, the werewolf crouched down, and let off 
with a tremendous leap up the side of the building.  Max wandered back 
to his car. It had been a long day. He needed sleep. 


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